PORTER (5/21/14): Addressing the vast disparities between students’ abilities will not be easy. In some public schools, children who are entering the sixth grade with the measured proficiency of first graders are mixed in with children who perform well above the sixth-grade standard.

Schools struggle to teach this mix. Teachers are frustrated: Almost half leave the profession within five years.

Do middle schools really struggle with that wide range of achievement levels? Data from our most reliable testing program, the National Assessment of Educational Progress, suggest the existence of these large achievement gaps within the nation’s student population.

As we turn "gaps" through constant repetition into a capitalized term of art through this series, let's not lose sight of the fact that these are averages. There are millions of black kids who do better than most white kids. Averages say absolutely nothing about any individual. Let's also realize that test performance says little about intelligence. If a black kid from the "inner city" made up a test with localized vocabulary and focused on the subject of street smarts -- which could also be divided into "Reading," "English," "Mathematics" and "Science" like the ACT -- if you're a middle class white kid from the suburbs you would get your butt kicked. Then Charles Murray could put you near the bottom of the bell curve and opine (without ever quite saying it, of course) that you and your friends just don't have the intellectual goods to succeed.

High scores say a great deal about intelligence, no matter who has earned them. It is the low scores that are ambiguous. They could be due to lack of intelligence or they could be due to other factors, from motivation to health to family problems. All knowledge is cultural -- that is beside the point. This idea that white kids lack street smarts whereas black kids automatically know lots of stuff white kids don't is a gross oversimplification of a well-meant exhortation not to take test scores at face value, but it is pretty silly. These standardized tests have been adjusted to eliminate culturally biased questions, unless you want to consider school curriculum itself a culturally biased subject. These days those middle class white kids wouldn't get their butts kicked on that urban test any more because they have learned the content from rap songs.

Finally, averages do say a great deal about most of the individuals in a group because the scores of most of the people in that group are clustered close to the mean. The average says nothing about any particular individual because you don't know where they fit in the distribution and they could have come from either tail -- very high or very low scores.

Your statement that there are millions of black kids who do better than most white kids is perhaps not true because there are 44 million African American people in the US (2012 census), but the actual percentage of African American kids who are above the white mean is pretty small. The standard deviation for the NAEP is about 20 points and the gaps are larger than that. That means the African American mean score is 1 to 1-1/2 standard deviations below the white mean. The portion of the upper tail that is beyond the white mean is 10-15 percent, generously. If you consider only school age children (8 million) then the number above the white mean would be about 800,000-1,200,000. That is a lot but not "millions."

I cannot thank you enough Bob for this informative post. Few bloggers would bother to let readers know they are in the middle of a month longexploration of an important new topic that has been long overlooked.

The gaps show up early and often. A certain class of upper-class liberal seems to enjoy a cuffing-aside of those kids. For today, we’ll assume that this basic point will seem fairly obvious. We’ve never seen that question discussed, and we never will. Given all the propaganda about our stagnant or failing schools, can that possibly be true?

Hello to every one out here, am here to share the unexpected miracle that happened to me three days ago, My name is Jeffrey Dowling,i live in TEXAS,USA.and I`m happily married to a lovely and caring wife,with two kids A very big problem occurred in my family seven months ago,between me and my wife so terrible that she took the case to court for a divorce she said that she never wanted to stay with me again,and that she did not love me anymore So she packed out of my house and made me and my children passed through severe pain. I tried all my possible means to get her back,after much begging,but all to no avail and she confirmed it that she has made her decision,and she never wanted to see me again. So on one evening,as i was coming back from work,i met an old friend of mine who asked of my wife So i explained every thing to her,so she told me that the only way i can get my wife back,is to visit a spell caster,because it has really worked for her too So i never believed in spell,but i had no other choice,than to follow her advice. Then she gave me the email address of the spell caster whom she visited.(bravespellcaster@gmail.com}, So the next morning,i sent a mail to the address she gave to me,and the spell caster assured me that i will get my wife back the next day what an amazing statement!! I never believed,so he spoke with me,and told me everything that i need to do. Then the next morning, So surprisingly, my wife who did not call me for the past seven {7}months,gave me a call to inform me that she was coming back So Amazing!! So that was how she came back that same day,with lots of love and joy,and she apologized for her mistake,and for the pain she caused me and my children. Then from that day,our relationship was now stronger than how it were before,by the help of a spell caster . So, was now stronger than how it were before,by the help of a spell caster . So, i will advice you out there to kindly visit the same website http://bravespellcaster.yolasite.com,if you are in any condition like this,or you have any problem related to "bringing your ex back. So thanks to Dr Brave for bringing back my wife,and brought great joy to my family once again.{bravespellcaster@gmail.com} , Thanks.

Hello to every one out here, am here to share the unexpected miracle that happened to me three days ago, My name is Jeffrey Dowling,i live in TEXAS,USA.and I`m happily married to a lovely and caring wife,with two kids A very big problem occurred in my family seven months ago,between me and my wife so terrible that she took the case to court for a divorce she said that she never wanted to stay with me again,and that she did not love me anymore So she packed out of my house and made me and my children passed through severe pain. I tried all my possible means to get her back,after much begging,but all to no avail and she confirmed it that she has made her decision,and she never wanted to see me again. So on one evening,as i was coming back from work,i met an old friend of mine who asked of my wife So i explained every thing to her,so she told me that the only way i can get my wife back,is to visit a spell caster,because it has really worked for her too So i never believed in spell,but i had no other choice,than to follow her advice. Then she gave me the email address of the spell caster whom she visited.(bravespellcaster@gmail.com}, So the next morning,i sent a mail to the address she gave to me,and the spell caster assured me that i will get my wife back the next day what an amazing statement!! I never believed,so he spoke with me,and told me everything that i need to do. Then the next morning, So surprisingly, my wife who did not call me for the past seven {7}months,gave me a call to inform me that she was coming back So Amazing!! So that was how she came back that same day,with lots of love and joy,and she apologized for her mistake,and for the pain she caused me and my children. Then from that day,our relationship was now stronger than how it were before,by the help of a spell caster . So, was now stronger than how it were before,by the help of a spell caster . So, i will advice you out there to kindly visit the same website http://bravespellcaster.yolasite.com,if you are in any condition like this,or you have any problem related to "bringing your ex back. So thanks to Dr Brave for bringing back my wife,and brought great joy to my family once again.{bravespellcaster@gmail.com} , Thanks.

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I never believed in love spells or magic until I met this spell caster once when i went to see my friend in Indian this year on a business summit. I meant a man who's name is Dr ATILA he is really powerful and could help cast spells to bring back one's gone, lost, misbehaving lover and magic money spell or spell for a good job or luck spell .I'm now happy & a living testimony cos the man i had wanted to marry left me 5 weeks before our wedding and my life was upside down cos our relationship has been on for 3years. I really loved him, but his mother was against us and he had no good paying job. So when i met this spell caster, i told him what happened and explained the situation of things to him. At first i was undecided,skeptical and doubtful, but i just gave it a try. And in 7 days when i returned to Canada, my boyfriend (now husband) called me by himself and came to me apologizing that everything had been settled with his mom and family and he got a new job interview so we should get married. I didn't believe it cos the spell caster only asked for my name and my boyfriends name and all i wanted him to do. Well we are happily married now and we are expecting our little kid, and my husband also got the new job and our lives became much better. His email is atilahealinghome@yahoo.com

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